Making a equirectangular panoramic image

Right at the beginning of the project, I requested a panoramic image from the team at the British Council in Delhi, so that I could construct a demonstration app for user testing in India that didn’t require real time camera data. They sent me back the following image:

I dropped it a simple A-Frame scene, using the Sky component. This was the result:

It was obvious that there was something wrong with the translation between an iPhone panorama and what the Sky component required, especially at the top and bottom of the panorama. Exploring the documentation around the Sky component further, I found this detail:

After reading Kevin’s 360-degree Photography Guide, I realised I needed to invest in a device that would make it possible for me to take equirectangular images – the iPhone just wasn’t going to cut it. Luckily, the article recommends a great camera, the Ricoh Theta S.

I snapped the following image today:

I dropped it into the same A-Frame scene that I used for the Delhi panorama and it worked perfectly:

Panorama win!

You can try the successful demo for yourself here. I’m going to send the camera out to Delhi soon so that I can capture more usable imagery.